developing high performance teachers in 21century schools...

Developing High Performance Teachers in 21Century Schools:

A Case Study of Beliefs and Behaviours of Master Teachers

Wendy Barber

University of Ontario Institute of Technology, Canada

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to examine four case

studies of teachers who have demonstrated excellence

in their teaching practice. Orlick [10], has identified

seven characteristics that are present in high

performing individuals. These include commitment,

belief, full focus, positive images, mental readiness,

distraction control and constructive evaluation. The

author posits that master teachers hold similar

beliefs and exhibit behaviours that are common

among high performers across professions, thus

enabling them to excel in their professional practice.

The challenge of creating educational cultures of

excellence in schools is complex and interweaves

many critical factors. In spheres beyond the teacher

development literature, the notion of excellence

includes consideration not only of the individual

actions that represent excellence in teaching, but also

the beliefs and behaviours that foster or provide

opportunities for growth in this direction. Unless the

conditions for excellence to occur are present, this

quality may remain inert. This case study summarizes

the beliefs and behaviours of four master teachers in

an urban secondary school in the Greater Toronto

area, and has implications for teacher development

and pre-service teachers.

1. Introduction

Orlick and colleagues [11] reveal there are several

common methods used by performers in the fields of

music, athletics, medicine, astrophysics, and

coaching. Initially, Orlick proposed a model of

excellence that was based primarily on a study of

high-performance athletes. He identified seven

common mental skills in the Wheel of Excellence

used by human beings in the pursuit of excellence:

“commitment, belief, full focus, positive images,

mental readiness, distraction control and constructive

evaluation”. These constructs may form a strong

theoretical basis for a review of teacher excellence.

Orlick’s further studies of musicians elaborated on

this model to include an abiding love for and

enjoyment of the profession, specific performance

goals, and a strong sense of self. In addition, Talbot

and Orlick’s [18] later study examined internationally

renowned musical soloists. Participants were

identified by specific performance criteria, were

interviewed and the transcripts of these discussions

were analyzed qualitatively. This work found that the

mental skills of top classical musicians are common

in comparison to each other, and it also revealed that

high-level performers refer to “creativity, flexibility,

and spontaneity as critical components of excellent

performance”. The field of medicine also provides

examples of how professionals are trained with a

view of excellent performance in mind. Tribble and

Newburg [19] discuss a system of education for

young physicians wherein candidates are

indoctrinated as virtual beginners but achieve a level

of mastery in a relatively short period of time. They

discuss a cross-training approach that includes

“preparation, leadership, awareness, decision-

making, reflection, vision and flow”. Barbour and

Orlick [2] studied elite-level National Hockey League

players and have identified four major factors

contributing to their success. These included “desire

or determination, self-sacrifice or being a team

player, the ability to cope well with pressure or

maturity, and coachability or dependability”. Finally,

Orlick’s [10] in depth interviews with Canadian

astronauts Chris Hadfield and Marc Garneau have

produced similar comments on the qualities required

to generate excellent performance. In addition to the

characteristics noted by other high performers, Orlick

also included “the ability to prioritize, think and act

clearly under stress, to maintain a big picture focus

and to quickly rebound from failure and move on the

next task”.

2. Methodology

The case study method was chosen for this

research for many reasons. The following operational

definition from Merriam [8] states that a qualitative

case study is an intensive, holistic description and

International Journal for Cross-Disciplinary Subjects in Education (IJCDSE), Special Issue Volume 5 Issue 2, 2015

Copyright © 2015, Infonomics Society 2538

analysis of a single instance, phenomenon or social

unit. I can ‘fence in’ what I am going to study. The

case then, could be a person such as a student,

teacher, principal; a program, a school, a community

and so on.

In addition, Merriam [8] reiterates that a case

study is particular (in this research the focus was on

teacher excellence and particular teachers and

schools), descriptive (this research focused on

teachers’ stories about excellence) and heuristic (this

research broadened the researcher’s understanding of

notions of excellence). The descriptions used in this

research were “holistic, lifelike, grounded and

exploratory, using prose and literary techniques to

describe, elicit images and analyse situations” [8].

Because of the low level of control that the researcher

had over the events studied, the case study was a

good choice of methodology. In addition, because the

researcher had operationally defined excellence as an

inclusive process, as opposed to a measurable final

end point, the case study was an appropriate

methodology. Merriam [8] states that this was so

because the “case study is a particularly suitable

design if you are interested in process”. In this

research, four teacher case studies were examined to

identify the personal and professional ways that

physical education teachers and coaches become high

performers. The advantage of using multiple cases

was that the potential for generalizability was

increased and the external validity was enhanced.

The study design and sample selection for this

research were based on principles of qualitative case

study work. Merriam [8] refers to two types of

sampling which are probability (random) and

nonprobability (purposeful) sampling. Since the goal

for this research was not to generate numerical or

statistical results, nonprobability sampling was the

method of choice for this research. The sample of

teachers to be studied had been selected purposefully;

therefore, the method used can be referred to as

purposive, nonprobability sampling. This method was

ideal for studying teacher excellence, since selection

criteria were determined by Orlick’s [10] model of

the Wheel of Excellence. Teachers who demonstrated

all or most of the seven characteristics, as chosen by

their principal and the researcher, were selected to do

the individual interviews and questionnaires. As such,

the sample was also criterion based, and used

Orlick’s [10] criteria for high performers. This type

of sample can be referred to as unique, since all

individuals performed at high levels. Merriam [8]

states that “a unique sample is based on unique,

atypical, perhaps rare attributes or occurrences of the

phenomenon of interest. You are interested in them

because they are unique or atypical”. Finally, the

bounded system that is the unit of investigation was

that all four teacher cases were taken from the same

independent school. This set parameters for analysis

of factors in the school environment that contributed

to excellence. Four physical education teachers and

coaches were participants and completed the school

environment questionnaire and provided data, which

was analysed based on Cibulka and Nakayama’s

Characteristics of High-Performing Schools [4].

2.1. Selection of Teacher Coach Participants

Four secondary school educators (two male, two

female) who acted as both teachers and coaches in

their formal professional duties at the senior school

level were participants in the study. Each of these

individuals had attained a high level of achievement

in his/her profession. Participants had been identified

by the principal and the researcher as having attained

a high level of excellence in teaching and coaching.

Indicators of excellence were defined in the frame of

reference identified by the researcher. This frame of

reference for individual excellence followed the

criteria for excellence stated above, from the research

of Orlick [10]. In line with this study, teachers who

were identified as excellent demonstrated evidence of

at least five of these seven characteristics:

commitment, belief in themselves, a positive mental

approach, full focus, good distraction control,

constructive evaluation and a high level of mental

readiness. The author hypothesized that there would

emerge several common beliefs and behaviours, and

professional and personal practices that could be seen

as contributing to excellence in the subjects’ teaching

development.

All teacher/coaches in this study worked at the

same independent school. While there is no

governing board for independent school districts, the

school in question was part of the provincial and

national associations for independent schools and met

the required standards to be a member of the

organization. The school was also certified by CESI

(Canadian Educational Standards Institute) and

followed the Ontario Ministry of Education

curriculum guidelines. The school site also has a

mandatory physical education and extra-curricular

athletic program for all students in each term

throughout secondary school. In addition, the high

percentage of PhD and master’s degree qualified

teachers indicates a school which valued professional

development, and the Head of school had approved

studies in action research in the school.

2.2. Research Procedures

The study consisted of three phases. Each phase identified different areas of perception about



professional excellence. Details regarding the purpose

of the phase, the participants’ and researcher’s

responsibilities, and the summary of resulting ideas

were included.

2.2.1. Phase 1 Pilot Study. This phase involved two

70 point questionnaires based on Cibulka and

Nakayama’s [4] work on high-performing

organizations and Orlick’s [10] work on high-

performing individuals. The purpose of the pilot

study was to refine and revise both of the

questionnaires as research tools, and to clarify any

inconsistencies in interpretation of the questions. The

school environment questionnaire was given to four

teachers in an independent school that had a similar

demographic population both in staff and students to

the study school. In addition, the individual teacher

questionnaire was given to two randomly chosen

teachers who did not participate in the overall survey.

This enabled the researcher to refine and revise the

individual teacher and school environment

questionnaires and to clarify teachers’ perceptions of

each question.

2.2.2. Phase 2 Questionnaires.This phase began

with the completion of the 70 point school

environment questionnaire by the four study

participants in the study group. A general analysis of

the participants’ perceptions of the school’s

contributions to excellent teacher performance was

included. The school environment questionnaire was

designed based on Cibulka and Nakayama’s [4]

model of high-performing schools and Anderson and

Piran’s [1] model of health promoting schools. This

phase also involved a 70 point individual

performance questionnaire that each of the four

teacher/coach participants answered. The individual

questions were devised based on a review of

literature on teacher excellence, mentoring, stress and

burnout, and excellence in teaching. These themes

were addressed throughout the questionnaire.

Answers were rated based on a one to five rating

scale, and participants had an opportunity to add

anecdotal comments.

Questions were designed to determine the

participants’ general self-perceptions, and their

values and beliefs about excellent teacher/coach

performance. The questionnaire also assessed

teachers’/coaches’ values and perceptions of the role

of the healthy school in supporting their striving for

professional excellence.

2.2.3. Phase 3 Interviews.This phase involved

individual interviews with anecdotal responses to

questions which elaborated on the individual’s

answers to the questionnaire. For example, the

questionnaire asked whether the teacher had a

significant mentor. During the interview, this was

expanded to the question “Can you describe the

overall effects which your mentor had on your

approaches to excellence”. All interviews were audio

taped and transcribed by the researcher.

Transcriptions of interviews were reviewed in writing

by participants in order to clarify comments or

questions.

Transcriptions were kept in a locked cabinet for

confidentiality, with access by the researcher and her

advisor only. Discussion was guided by the

researcher on the basis of the themes emerging from

the questionnaire. These themes included the

teacher’s personal philosophy of excellence, the

presence of a mentor, meaningful affiliation with and

influence of colleagues, the role of the school leader

in generating an environment which nurtures

excellence, and the relationship between teacher

burnout and the pursuit of excellence.

Additional themes which were critical

components of this research were discussed. These

included the teachers’ beliefs and behaviours that

they perceived were required for the achievement of

excellent teacher performance. Examples of this were

a passion for teaching and learning, a high level of

professional commitment, and the belief that one is

making a real difference in the lives of students. In

addition, individual and organizational barriers to

high performance were discussed. For instance,

teacher timetables, schedules and extracurricular

expectations which impacted on a teacher’s time

emerged as barriers to high achievement. In addition,

a non-supportive school leader or the lacks of

meaningful interaction with colleagues were

discussed as common barriers to high performance in

teaching.

2.2.4. Phase 3 Field Observations.Further to this,

the researcher arranged to spend one to two hours as

an observer in the teacher’s/coach’s classroom and

practice environment. This field observation for each

individual participant was placed in the context that

was already developed during the questionnaires and

interviews. Teachers chose the type of class to be

observed based on what they felt would be a

demonstration of their professional practice at their

best teaching level. Preliminary analysis of the data

collected during interviews and questionnaires was

done prior to the classroom visits, and recorded in a

set of field notes accessible to the researcher only.



This prepared the researcher to record field

observations in the context of the teacher’s stated

perceptions of the elements required for excellent

teaching and coaching. It was clear that an individual

teacher’s perception of “excellent teaching” was a

direct result of the values, beliefs and behaviours

which they held in high esteem. As a result, the

observation of each participant was placed in this

personal context. Each participant had expressed

several key values and beliefs about excellent

teaching, and these were noted prior to the field

observations. The field notes taken during this

process were examined to determine the level of

congruency between the teacher’s actions in the

classroom and their responses already recorded. The

researcher then analysed if the observed teacher’s

behaviours reflected the beliefs they had already

expressed in both the questionnaire and the interview.

A short review of the field observation was discussed

with each participant to determine their own

perceptions of whether or not that particular lesson

was an indicator of their average level of teaching

excellence. In this way, the data were effectively

triangulated to give a complete, concise picture of

excellent teaching as it existed through the actions of

the practitioner.

3. Data Collection and Analysis

Data were recorded using field notes, and

interviews with individual teachers were taped and

transcribed for later analysis. These transcripts were

provided to each teacher for clarification and

adjustment, to ensure that the teacher’s comments

during both the interview and the class observation

were accurate and in the proper context as originally

intended by the subject. All transcripts and

participant consent forms were stored in a locked

space by the researcher and these were stored for one

year after the study had been completed. The names,

descriptions of extracurricular activities and personal

backgrounds of participants and school names used in

the analysis were indicated in this report as

pseudonyms.

The participants were told on the consent forms

that they could request a copy of the final study upon

completion. The headmaster was contacted for both

permission to perform the study and for anecdotal

input about the specific teacher’s and coach’s

performance. The headmaster was also key in subject

selection, and he approved the selection of all four

participants based on their having exhibited at least

five of Orlick’s [10] seven characteristics of high-

performing individuals. This input was gathered

through personal interviews and recorded verbatim

using field notes. Formal ethical approval for this

study was granted by the Education Research Ethics

Board of the University of Toronto prior to data

collection.

4. Findings

Orlick’s Wheel of Excellence [10] can be used to

ascertain how high-performing teachers have

similarities to excellent performers in other

disciplines. Individually, the teachers in the study

exhibited common traits according to this theoretical

model. In addition to the data revealed by the cross-

case analysis, several other critical psychological

constructs emerged that appear to play an essential

role in teacher excellence. These additional qualities

that the teachers in this study exhibited may be

specific to performers in educational settings. Despite

very different levels of experience, these teachers all

possessed these additional characteristics, which were

exhibited in their daily actions and approaches to

education. These may be key traits and behaviours

that are specifically required for teachers to become

excellent at their craft.

4.1. Beliefs

Teachers demonstrated four primary beliefs in

common. An authentic sense of self, in both personal

and professional terms was essential. In addition,

they experienced an implicit trust in their intuition,

creativity and lateral thinking skills. Further to this,

the teachers had a meaningful view of teaching as a

vocation, and felt the need for “making a difference”.

Finally, they all had a great deal of passion for

quality in life and work.

4.1.1. Authentic Self. Miller [9] writes, “perhaps the

most important element in soulful learning is the

teacher’s soul. The teacher’s soul must be nourished

if the student’s soul is to develop. There is nothing

that our students desire from us more than our

attention, our authentic presence”. Two qualities that

a soulful teacher can usually bring to the classroom

are presence and caring. Presence arises from

mindfulness where the teacher is capable of listening

deeply. Each of the teachers in this study had developed

and nourished an authentic sense of self that did not

depend on others’ perceptions of them. There was a

qualitative difference in how they acted as teachers

and as people when they felt fully present. Teachers

stated that when they felt like they were being true to

themselves they sensed that their lessons and

practices were much more engaging. This sense of



mindfulness is a characteristic of good teaching. In

each case, soul was demonstrated in different ways.

In Mike’s case, the authenticity of his coaching was

one of his personal measures of excellence. “If I am

not fully there, then I can’t transmit the energy my

kids need. They need to sense that I am at my best so

they can be at their best” (Mike,Case Study # 3,

2005). For Sarah, being authentic in the residential

setting meant letting kids see her as a real person.

Working with boarding students has its inherent risks,

and she was fully aware that the best way to reach

students was to be fully present with them. Jake

demonstrated confidence and authenticity by staying

true to his teaching style, and by letting students see

him as a real person and not merely as a football

coach. For Susan, mindfulness was shown in the

daily care she exhibited and in her ability to really

listen to students’ personal concerns.

The teachers also expressed that students appeared

to be alienated from developing a true and honest

sense of self because they were trying to please so

many people and get the right marks. Each of the

teachers interpreted this as a cultural phenomenon.

As teachers, they were true to themselves in order to

model for students that they too should develop

authenticity and an ability to question cultural norms.

As Ferguson [6] notes, “the real alienation in our time

is not from society but from self”.

Developing an authentic sense of self may be

something that takes time and experience. While

these teachers all had between ten to thirty years of

teaching experience, they also said that their personal

life experience had carved them into the individuals

they had become. There was not a clear line between

who they were in the classroom and who they were as

human beings. “Performing” in the sense that other

disciplines put on a show temporarily or

competitively is a different scenario than the one we

witness in educational settings. Teachers perform in

so many different roles during a single school day

and for a longer time period than most performers in

other domains. For teachers, performing means

letting students see who we are, and this needs to

occur at a slower, gentler pace than it may occur in

other high performance activities.

4.1.2. Trust in Intuition.Each of these teachers

expressed a very strong sense of their inner voice as

teachers. They trusted their gut feelings and placed a

high priority on intuition. In teaching situations, this

may be a critical component for high performance.

Because of the high degree of variability in any one

class, teachers need to be able to react to

unpredictable situations quickly and accurately. Very

rarely do they encounter a consistent and

conventional educational situation that is easy to

replicate. Because they are dealing with so many

adolescents, whose lives are unpredictable and full of

emotional swings, teachers’ respect for their own

intuitive responses is the key to the climate in the

classroom. As Claxton [5] observes, “teaching is a

highly specific process but one which nevertheless

has similarities with others involving the performance

of complex and diverse skills in real time and in

contexts that are unpredictable and constantly

evolving”.

The combination of variables and how well the

teacher deals with them instantaneously both affect

the quality of the learning moment. These teachers

did not view intuitive choices as uncertain; they

stated that they were merely choosing a different kind

of certainty and trusting in an inner wisdom. Clearly,

intuition is a valid source of knowing for excellent

teachers. Ferguson [6] speaks about the type of inner

knowledge this entails. Paradoxically, if we give up

the need for certainty in terms of control and fixed

answers, we are compensated by a different kind of

certainty, a direction, not a fact. We begin to trust

intuition, whole-brain knowing, what scientist-

philosopher Michael Polanyi [15] termed “tacit

knowing”.

It is ironic that education has a long history of

distrusting intuition. This may be a very unfortunate

situation, since the teacher case studies in this

research indicate that intuition is essential to

excellent teaching. We have, as a culture, learned to

distrust intuition and our teacher education programs

must include intuition as an important reservoir of

professional knowledge. Claxton [5] discusses the

cultural value judgements placed on cognition as a

higher order of knowing than aesthetics and intuition.

He states “the distrust of intuition and the inability to

see how and even perhaps why it could be

incorporated into education reflect three hundred

years of European cultural history. The

Enlightenment picked out just this single way of

knowing and, in raising it to a high art, implicitly

ignored or disabled others: those that were not so

clinical and cognitive and were instead more bodily,

sensory, affective, mythic or aesthetic, in a word,

intuitive.” Intuition should be seen as a valid way of

knowing for teachers. School leaders who respect this

will be able to develop more high-performing

teachers. Because of its holistic nature, intuitive

teaching is an essential component of a healthy

school environment. Respect for the influences of

others, the community, and the physical, mental,

spiritual and social aspects of work all add to the

intuitive decision making of these excellent teachers.



4.1.3. Teaching as Vocation. The values of the high-

performing teachers in this study were internally

based. It was clear that each had taken a path to

teaching that was unique, but each of them believed

that they were fully meant to be there. Teaching was

not just a job with good summer holidays; they all

saw it as what they were meant to be doing with their

lives. They all felt, despite the inevitable frustrations

of a career in education, that they were making a real

difference. They also tried to role model this attitude

for students and would agree with Postman [16] that

“at its best, schooling can be about how to make a

life, which is quite different from how to make a

living”. This certainty has created a sense of

autonomy and confidence in their life choices and

this sense appears to be critical in teacher excellence.

Ferguson [6] concurs that “most importantly, when

people become autonomous their values become

internal. Their purchases and their choice of work

begin to reflect their own authentic needs and desires

rather than the values imposed on them by

advertisers, family, peers, and media.”

These teachers experienced frustration when the

educational system did not support their values, or

when they were forced to operate in any way that did

not align with their inner values. Academic pressures

for university entrance created frustration for them at

times, due to the fact that they valued “real learning”,

whether or not it meant the student got accepted into

the “right” university. This type of “real learning”

may or may not be what students experience at the

university level, however, these teachers all had a

sense of what constituted high quality learning. In

many cases, they spoke of application of the

knowledge, the ability to apply learned knowledge in

new situation, and the willingness to be curious about

new ideas as examples of “real learning” (Jake, Case

Study # 2). In the case of two teacher participants, the

excessive time demands were very frustrating. Busy

work jobs that did not have deep meaning to them

became tasks that were exercises in frustration. They

chose to teach in a way that respected “voluntary

simplicity”, which has been referred to by Ferguson

[6] as “a lifestyle in which one avoids clutter and

focuses one’s energies on what really matters.

Voluntary simplicity is an attitude, not a budget:

thoughtful consumption, resistance to artificially

created needs, sensitivity to the limits of natural

resources, a more human scale of living and

working.”

The obvious difficulty of operating most schools

on the principles of voluntary simplicity is clear.

Cultural pressures to define education in competitive

terms of degrees and marks may be impeding the

kind of creative, excellent and “real” teaching which

the culture desperately needs. There is a distinct

values shift in excellent teaching that is qualitatively

different, and school leaders need to be able to recruit

and train teachers who view their profession as a real

vocation. Teachers who perceive their profession as a

“calling” are more driven towards excellent

performance in the classroom and on the playing

fields.

4.1.4. Passion for Quality.Each of these teachers

demonstrated a great passion for high quality. They

had little tolerance for low level experiences, and

they knew and had defined for themselves what good

quality meant. “Quality” is a term that aligns itself

well with excellent teaching. However, the

difficulties in defining “Quality” mirror the

challenges of defining “Excellence”. Cultural, gender

and demographic parameters must be taken into

consideration.

The key point is this: for these teachers to perform

at a high level, they had to stay true to their personal

definition of quality in living and working. This

definition had to have a high degree of congruence

with the institution’s definition of quality. Supports

had to be in place to help teachers produce high

quality work, and school leaders had to be open

minded, flexible, and adaptable to ensure this

happened. A great deal of resentment, anger, and

frustration resulted when this support did not occur.

This passion for quality and drive for excellence are

mirrored in many high performers in other areas, and

similar levels of frustration are evident when

bureaucratic barriers impede the individual’s drive

towards the performance he/she desires.

Quality in the business sense is not what these

teachers were referring to, and the trends in business

towards Total Quality Management mentioned by

Peters & Waterman [13] appear to be product

oriented and, thus, not useful in educational settings.

These teachers were all very process oriented and

measured their success over the long term. These

teachers used themselves and each other to evaluate

their professional expertise. A model such as Total

Quality Management does not work in high-

performing schools because, as Palmer [12] reveals,

“we lack reliable methods for evaluating teaching.

Second, good education is almost always more

process than product. Third, good education may

leave students deeply dissatisfied for a while. It can

take years for a student to feel grateful to a teacher

who introduces a dissatisfying truth.” Clearly,

attention to process and commitment to quality are

two hallmarks of excellent teachers. School leaders

must be prepared to invest in the long term and to

have a variable definition of high quality teaching

that aligns itself with the needs of the community in

which the school resides.



4.2. Behaviours

4.2.1. Healthy Lifestyle. Teachers in this study

maintained a commitment to healthy living, and three

of them stated that, when the components of health

were not there due to stress or other outside

influences, the quality of their teaching and lessons

deteriorated. For Jake and Mike, exercise became an

emotional outlet to release the stress of their jobs.

Jake also had a role in designing fitness programs for

other staff members who wanted to improve energy

levels, decrease cholesterol or get back in shape. To

escape the pressures of residence life, Sarah and Jake

worked out at a local gym. Susan had a walking or

recreational sport regime that contributed to her

positive attitude to teaching. Health related practices

had a direct impact on their abilities to perform well

in their jobs. It is clear that a healthy lifestyle is a

critical part of the foundation of excellent teaching.

As Langford and Carter [7] note,“the goal of

educational excellence is certainly understandable,

however, if tomorrow’s scholars die prematurely

from hypo-kinetic diseases their greatest

contributions to society will never materialize. The

ancient Greeks understood that the educational

experience encompassed the development of mind,

body, and spirit, with each deserving equal

importance.” For teachers to perform at high levels,

good healthy practices are critical. In addition, the

school must support and model good health practices,

and give teachers time to take care of their bodies and

minds in a way that suits them, while still fulfilling

the demands of their jobs. Attention to preventive

health practices could alleviate some of this stress

related anxiety about teaching at a high level.

Each of the teachers in this study was both aware

of and had dealt with some health concerns of

students in the past. Their commitment to healthy

learning was evident in the way they respected

students’ needs for physical activity, proper nutrition,

and adequate sleep. Jake was encouraged by the

development of the school’s fitness and

physiotherapy centre, and by the increasing

availability of guidance counselors. He reiterated that

“I think it’s important that the kids see me out there

sweating too; that way they know that being active is

really part of my life” (Jake, Case Study # 4, 2005).

Ultimately, a school’s firm commitment to student

and staff health becomes part of the foundation for

excellent teaching.

4.2.2. Personal Life. Maintaining a reasonable

personal life outside the school is a challenge in the

independent school setting. It was very clear,

however, that each of these high-performing teachers

made it a priority to step back from their work and

protect their private time. In some cases, it was a hard

lesson learned over time by those who had reached a

level where they realized that they were no longer

performing at their best. Orlick [11] reflects that

“many people begin their careers believing that the

harder you work, the better you will be. This holds

true only to a point. Working so long and hard that

you do not have time to recover physically or

emotionally can work against you. Over time, your

performance may decline rather than improve, which

may make you think that you need to work even

harder. Great performance requires quality rest.

Highly committed people have to guard against

overworking, which can cause a downward spiral of

emotions and performance.”

This may be a particularly large barrier to new

teachers, who try to take on so much in order to

impress their colleagues and school principal, or just

to keep their jobs. This practice may impede their

progress towards excellent teaching. The demands of

the teaching profession are growing exponentially,

and teachers are asked to be everything, including

social workers, counselors, choreographers, coaches

and more. The teachers in this study were no

exception to this, however they did protect their

personal time. This behaviour may be partly due to

life experience, but it is also a factor which is

common in excellent teachers.

Protecting their personal space required them to be

very sure of their internal value system. It meant

confronting the guilt that exists in many independent

schools and the cultural affinity for doing more and

more, and for working harder and faster to get ahead.

Each of these teachers respected his/her personal pace

and stepping back from their roles as teachers helped

them to keep things in perspective. Finally, these

teachers emphasized the positive aspects of their

personal lives, and used these to enhance their

professional performances. Orlick [11] states that

“high quality living and performance are enhanced by

making environments positive and uplifting, by

finding opportunities within the situations we face

and by embracing good qualities in ourselves and the

people around us”. Clearly, teaching at a high level

requires mental and emotional breaks that can be

enhanced by cultivating a strong and positive

personal framework that is unrelated to the school

and work environment.

4.2.3. Expertise in Content.The teachers in this

study represented a variety of content areas including

physical education, as they also taught smaller

sections of science, guidance, and technology. Two

of the teachers held leadership roles as Directors of

Athletics and Director of Physical Education

programs. Despite the areas of teaching, what they all



had in common was a passionate commitment to

increasing their expertise in their content area. It was

not unusual to see them on the leading edge of

current events, techniques, and topics that were

incorporated into their lessons. Experts in the fields

were often brought in to enrich classes. They

appeared to never be satisfied with less than their

best, and did not present themselves as “experts” to

their students. Many studies have found that teachers

with a higher degree of professional expertise were

less susceptible to the stress loads than those teaching

in content areas where they had less practical

knowledge. Rean and Baranov [17] reveal that

“expert teachers have a higher need for complete self-

realization. Teachers having a high level of

pedagogical expertise are superior to teachers who

have a low level of pedagogical expertise and this

exerts a substantial influence on the level of teachers’

stress tolerance.” It is ironic that many first year

teachers are placed in situations where numerous

preparations are required, and many operate in areas

of “leftover” courses that have to be taught. Teachers

with the most experience usually teach the courses

they are already comfortable with, and those with low

levels of experience often teach the broadest

spectrum of courses. This is a formula for preventing

excellence. New teachers should only be given

courses in which they have a good level of content

competence, but in reality this is rarely the case.

In addition, the teachers in this study were not

intimidated by students or other teachers who had

appeared to show greater content knowledge in one

area or another. The common values held by the

excellent teachers in this study were as follows. First,

that knowledge is not static; second, that expertise in

any content area must respect the fact that we live in

an information society; finally, that access to new

knowledge and knowing how to apply in it novel

situations are equally or more important than

knowing a series of static facts.

In Mike’s situation, his expertise did not arise

from formal pedagogical training. This lack of

training had a greater effect in his initial years of

teaching. However, he had a mentor relationship at

the beginning of his career with a formally trained

senior teacher at the same school. This enabled him

to learn and gain in-service training while teaching

and coaching. In a sense, it would seem he started his

teacher education by taking a yearlong apprenticeship

practicum with the senior teacher at the school. This

brings forward the question of the relevant

importance of theory of education classes versus

practical experience. Both are deemed to be an

important part of the teacher education process.

Mike’s experience and development towards

becoming a teacher who was identified as “excellent”

based on Orlick’s [10] parameters, was based almost

entirely on practical experience in the field. This

raises some important issues. In particular, it

introduces the question of how important is each

component of the teacher education process. Mike

also had a strong background in his subject area from

both personal experience as a student and athlete.

However, this contradicts Susan’s views that

expertise as an athlete does not necessarily transfer to

expertise as a teacher. Mike felt that his weakest area

lay in being up to date of strategies for assessment

and evaluation. The gap he felt was remedied by

regular in-service training.

4.2.4. Risk Taking and Valuing Mistakes.High

performers in many professional areas value the

importance of taking well calculated risks. They

ensure that they are as well prepared as possible, and

use their expertise to assess possible outcomes, prior

to venturing into new, uncharted territory. They are

not intimidated by new challenges, and they look

forward to finding creative solutions to problems. In

this way, expert teachers become highly skilled at

functioning in new situations [3].

They are continually practicing the techniques

associated with expert thinking, including the ability

to go beyond practiced habits or routines to develop

new ways of framing problems. They operate with

confidence and examine all of the facts, realizing that

the fact they may need may be quietly sitting adjacent

to the one a non-expert might have ignored as

unimportant [14]. Each of the participants in this

study discussed this type of behaviour and mentioned

situations that they had to resolve using creative or

innovative solutions. In addition, they were able to

remain calm throughout the process. Maintaining an

ability to see the larger picture when under emotional

stress is an advantage when taking a risk. In venues

beyond education, this is clear in the performance of

astronauts in potentially life threatening situations

[11]. It is the combination of being highly prepared

and having the affective control in the moment that

allows high-performing teachers to take risks and

accept making errors. Instead of fearing mistakes,

these teachers looked for the learning in the situation

and often found valuable knowledge in the process.

5. Conclusions

These case studies have produced a snapshot of

teachers who were performing at high levels; three of

them stated in the interviews that they had questioned

how long they could handle working at such an

intense pace. The nature of the teaching moments

which they chose to discuss demonstrates the high



level of emotional involvement that they felt for their

students and their work. This level of passion for the

profession may be a prerequisite for excellent

teaching, but it can also be a precursor to burnout.

School leaders must be aware that their best

teachers, or those with the potential to be their best,

are also at high risk for stress and burnout. They need

to be coached in terms of the strengths shown by the

participants in this study. Maintaining a personal life,

keeping a healthy lifestyle, balancing commitment to

work and to self are all habits that must be nurtured

in young teachers to prevent burnout. The path to

excellence across professions lies dangerously close

to the path to burnout. Excellence requires an

emotional, intellectual and spiritual intensity on the

part of the individual which must be managed and

balanced with care.

6. References

[1] A. Anderson and N. Piran, “Health Promoting Schools”,

CAHPERD Journal, (Spring), 1999, pp. 10-15.

[2] S. Barbour and T. Orlick, “Mental skills of national

hockey league players”, Journal of Excellence, (January),

1998, pp. 60-80.

[3] Bereiter, C. and M. Scardamalia, Surpassing Ourselves,

Open Court Publishing, .Peru IL, 1993.

[4] J. Cibulka and M. Nakayama, “Practitioners’ guide to

learning communities: the creation of high-performance

schools through organizational and individual learning”,

(ERIC Document Reproduction Service No. ED 449141)

2000.

[5]Claxton. G. (1997). Hare Brained and Tortoise Mind.

London, ON: Fourth Estate.

[6] Ferguson, M. The Aquarian Conspiracy. St. Martin’s

Press, New York, NY. 1980.

[7] G. Langford & L. Carter (2003). Academic excellence

must include physical education. The Physical Educator,

60(1), 28-33.

[8] Merriam, S. (1998). Qualitative Research and Case

Study Applications in Education. San Francisco, CA:

Jossey-Bass.

[9] Miller, J. (2000). Education and the Soul: Toward a

Spiritual Curriculum. New York, NY: State University of

New York Press.

[10] T. Orlick, (1992).The applied side: the psychology of

personal excellence, Performance

Enhancement. (1), 1992, pp. 109-122.

[11] Orlick, T. (1998). Embracing Your Potential. Ottawa,

ON: Human Kinetics.

[12]Palmer, P. J. (1998). The Courage to Teach: Exploring

the Inner Landscape of a Teacher’s Life. San Francisco,

CA: Jossey-Bass.

[13] Peters, T. and R. Waterman, In Search of Excellence.

Harper Books, New York, NY, 2004.

[14] Pirsig, R., Zen and the Art of Motorcycle

Maintenance. Bantam Books, New York, NY, 1974.

[15] Polanyi, M. (1967). The Tacit Dimension. New York,

NY: Doubleday.

[16]Postman, N. (1994). The Disappearance of Childhood.

New York, NY: Random House.

[17] A. Rean & A. Baranov (1998). Factors in teachers’

tolerance of stress. Russian Education and Society, 40(5),

52-68.

[18] C. Talbot and T. Orlick, “The essence of excellence:

mental skills of top classical musicians” Journal of

Excellence, (January), 1998, pp. 82-93.

[19] C. Tribble and D. Newburg, “Learning to fly: teaching

mental strategies to future surgeons”, Journal of Excellence

(January) 1998, pp. 8-18.



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